


They Call Us Monsters

by mangoesntangoes



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Brotps, Gen, Other, Simon is mentioned but not actually in it, we love brotps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:08:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27596654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mangoesntangoes/pseuds/mangoesntangoes
Summary: Teen Alec and David, that I accidentally fell in love with
Relationships: Alec Artino | Ace Anarchy & David Artino
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

Prodigies aren't people. No, They are monsters. Monsters with red skin and black fingers. Monsters with gold fangs and stars for pupils. People knew how to look for monsters. Monsters that weren't obvious at least. 

People knew how to look for monsters like Alec. Like David. He watched his brother bring gold threads from their existence, wrapping them around his fingers. Good to know he was sticking to the plan. 

He smiled at the sight. A beautiful sight that he could be killed for. Ace let his own power through him like water. A small pebble flew and hit David on the baskside of his head. He looked back and stuck his tongue out. 

Alec never really understood. They weren't monsters. David certainly wasn't. How could he be? David was small and vulnerable. More prey than predator. 

Alec was...debatable. He would've been considered a monster for his views or even just the way acted. He was often called a bully. Was it his words? Was it his actions? Was it just because he was a prodigy with no outlet, as his peers would say? 

His thoughts lingered as his shoes clicked on concrete.   
He looked over his shoulder at his brother. 

"I see a victim," he whispered, in a mock singing voice, glad to be distracted from his burning thoughts. 

David tensed as the gold thread wrapped around his hands. 

"Are you sure this is a good idea? We could just buy it, you know," he whispered. 

"Do you have med money?"  
David shrunk back. 

"Thats what i thought. Now get ready, he's coming." 

The two ducked behind the alleyway the man was about to walk into. A couple more steps and it's all up to David. It should be an easy task. All he had to do was trip him with the thread.

The man already wasn't paying attention, his sorry head buried in the brightness of his phone. Ales squeezed his brother's shoulders.

"Now!" 

David pulled on the string.   
The man stumbled with a gasp. His phone flew out of his hand and his head gashed against the sidewalk.

"Sorry!" David exclaimed. He quickly tried to stumble to feet but David wrapped the burning thread around him. Alec picked up the phone. 

"Dinners waiting for you, Come home soon" The text read. His eye twitched. 

"Hey!" The man shouted. Alec waved his hand at his brother. "Shut him up!" Alec said to him as he reached for the man's pockets. The man struggled but David held him tight. 

"Please be quiet, sir!" David created a new thicker thread and pressed it against the man's mouth. He gave a muffled cry as Alec dug through his jacket pocket. "Bingo." He brought out a bottle of ibuprofen. 

He gave the man a look of pity.   
"Sick kid im guessing? Or just annoying?" The man huffed angrily against the golden tape. Alec smirked. He patted the man's shoulder.

"Just go to dinner, alright?" He gestured to David and his brother released his first victim. David shuddered as the man gave him a look. A pissed look.

"Just who do you think you are?" The man growled, rising to his feet and towering over them both. Blood dripped from the gash on his forehead.   
Alec shrugged. "Street kids, i guess." 

The man growled as he rolled up his sleeve. "I think you mean dead kids!" David yelled as he lunged for them. Alec grabbed his brother by the scruff of his shirt and threw him in front of the way.

"Run!" he screamed and David took off. Like a good little monster. Alec let his powers flow. The man's phone leveled from the ground. It shot through the air and impacted the man straight in the temple.

Hard. 

He fell over with no grace.   
Alec made the phone come back to his hand. He brandished it, flipping the back and front. It had a crack and obviously blood on it. But other than that, it looked pretty good. 

A souvenir.

He walked over to the victim's limp body. He was still breathing. Alec touched two finger to his own temple. "Thank you for your time," he said. The gun that laid in the victim's pocket leveled to Alec's hand. 

Alec walked remotely close to his little brother, his hands in his pockets.   
———  
"You need to stop apologizing." Alec perked. His brother turned to him.

"I think we need to stop stealing," he rebutted.   
Alec shrugged. 

"We aren't the ones that made it this way," he said. David couldn't tell if he was lying or joking or what. No, it wasn't the monsters fault. 

It was the people's way of treating the monsters. It was the people's fault. And Alec knew, the people would apologize someday.

"But you're gonna make it that way. Worse, even," David mumbled. Alec sucked his teeth. The way Alec saw it, he would make the people pay. The way David saw it, he would make them pay in blood.

"Don't you want to be known, David?" Alec started, squeezing his shoulder. "You have a gift. Don't you want the people to know how strong you really are?" David shrugged him off. 

"Strong means dangerous to people like us. I thought you would know that." But Alec did know. Of course he did. And he didn't care. If strong meant dangerous, then so be it. Alec and David were strong. 

———

Alec watched his brother with intent. The way he pulled the thread from nothing was mesmerizing. Enchanting even. David had no real idea of how powerful he was. Hopefully this creation would show him his true power. 

Alec shifted against the couch trying to get a better view. He could've sworn the strings were sparkling. 

"Like this, right?" David said, a shake in his voice. 

He was afraid, Alec could tell. Alec only nodded and David continued. It was already taking shape. The shape of a golden bronze skull. The threads settled against each other nicely, laying flat and still. 

Whenever he laid down another thread, the new   
would fuse with the old. 

“Youre kinda scary, you know…” David commented. Alec looked his way. 

“Why?”   
David sighed with a defeated shrug.

“Youre just...everywhere.” he whispered. 

“No. Im just always around you.”

“Why?”

“You know why…”

David huffed. He knew why. Because he needed to be protected. A prodigy as small as David could easily get killed in this city. Its nearly happened before.

School. Some jock with no left eye. David had cornered by him and of course, he was hesitant to fight back. He had no control over his powers then. He blocked his face with his arms, trying to avoid the punch. 

Then threads came. The boy yelled in confusion as the took hold of his wrists. Of course, the boy cried. David was sent to the office and pretty much after that, expelled. And then came to this new school. 

“Prodigy Tolerable.” Exactly what the sign said. Prodigy Tolerable. Alec had wrinkled his nose at he sight of it. 

“Why are people so scared of our gifts?” David yanked another thread from the air. It looked like it had burned hotter than the rest. 

Alec stared for a moment. Could his emotion contribute to his power? Did he have another way to use it? So many questions had answered his little brother.

“Because they…” Because they couldn’t fight back? Because they would never know the true extent to one’s gift? One’s true intent with it? Alec scratched at his chin. 

“Jealousy? Because they're jealous?"

David gave him a look out of the corner of his eye. A skeptical look. Yet, Alec persisted.

“Who wouldn't be jealous of such power?” He said, kicking his legs over the couch. His back pressed against the wall, his feet resting on the couch cushion. Who wouldn't be jealous of such power? Was it that jealousy that made them so afraid?

“I dont think it's jealousy that makes people scared,” David whispered, his hands glowing even more. Alec squinted against the light. 

“Then, Power.” Alec said. “They have no power against us.”

“That's what you think makes them jealous?” 

“I would think so,” Alec muttered, with a smirk. 

Normal adults who were powerless against children always felt useless. Then, became angry. He could imagine how these adults felt when they could not control a prodigy. 

“What if they had gifts of their own?” David pushed. 

“That would be a world of chaos.” 

“How?”

“You see, how angry they already are? What makes you think they won't abuse their gifts themselves. They'll only them to put us down even more.”

“That's not what Simon thinks…” David muttered.

“Who?” 

David said nothing, gripping hot strings here and there. Alec shoved him a bit with his foot, but David did not move. He kept working. 

Whoever they were, they more likely wrong. These people would abuse every drip of power they received, should it be given. And they wouldn't let up. It was these people that made this city uninhabitable. 

Alec did more for the City than it did for itself. Anarchy seemed the only option fir the City to be considered “saved.” He was strong. And soon enough, David would make him stronger.

And he would no longer be the kid with a dream. He would be the man with a vision.   
A vision that will be acted upon. 

He would be Ace Anarchy. 

And Anarchy will reign in favor of monsters.


	2. Rule Over Ruin

If David wanted to save anything, it was obviously the city. But also his brother from his absolute madness. 

He was the only family he had left and to see him distracted at the thought he could ruin a city and rebuild it again… Alec didn't see it as ruining.

He saw it as “fixing” and “correcting”. It didn't make sense to him. Any at all. He didn't understand how stealing and killing was seen as “fixing. He didn't know exactly what he was planning to do. But if he could stop it, he would in an instant. 

He just wished he could saw it sooner.   
He didn't know how he didn't.   
Alec always talked of ruling over some place, his "kingdom fit for a god", he would call it, as if he considered himself a god. Sometimes, David thought he called himself that because of their parents. 

Alec called David a God, too. They were the only two in their family, who had uncontrollable and unfathomable powers. 

Their parents always catered to them however they wanted. Alec took it as he was a great kid with power and power alone. David took it as fear. He knew that's what it was. It was fear. 

Alec was blinded by the service he was providied. He thought himself as a King. A God.   
Their parents were scared they would be found.   
Their parent were scared that the two would lash out and hurt someone. 

David didn't want to hurt anyone. He didn't want people to be hurt because of him. He didn't want people to be scared of him. He didn't want to be scared. Thats why he had to end it before it started.

He pulled his hoodie over his head, keeping the helmet close to his chest. The rain didn't affect anything, but he didn't feel like taking any chances. Alec knew he finished it. 

And when David saw the complete interest and wild power that shined in his eyes, he knew he created a mistake. He knew it was a mistake when Alec asked for it. He made it out of fear, if he wanted to be honest. Alec was a powerful man by himself. 

He was going to fix his mistake. And if that meant destroying it, then so be it. Alec had his own little issue with power. If you destroyed or let go of power that was rightfully yours, or even if it was power that you stole, he deemed you weak.

But in David’s eyes, this would be one of the strongest things he ever done. 

David raised the helmet. He raised it high over his head. Something in him tempted him to actually put it on. That's what he said, to Alec, he was doing. 

He did make it but he didn't know if it would actually work. It wouldn't hurt, ...would it? It would hurt for just a taste if his own power, that "Ace" so desperately wanted?

David shook his head with a roar as he smashed it to the ground. It did not break. It did not crack. It sizzled a bit in the water, but that was really all it did. David’s breaths were heavy against the hard rain. 

He squatted, grabbing up the wet helmet and held close to his chest again. Something bad was going to happen. He looked up at the sky. It was dark but the stars shined so brightly, it was almost blinding. Or he was staring up too long.   
——  
David knocked firmly on the door. He heard shuffling, and what sounded like a chair being dragged. 

Alec opened the door and gave him a look before letting him in.

“How did it go?”

David swallowed. He said he was going to try it on himself but he never did. He could only stare into the empty eyeholes of what would soon be the sole definition of destruction.

“Fine.” he mumbled, setting the helmet on the coffee table. He sat on the floor, staring into the face of it. 

It was kind of ugly. 

Or maybe he thought that because he stared at it too long. He didn't want this thing in his hands anymore. But he didn't want it in Alec’s either. And he didn't know where to put it. 

He couldn't say he lost it. He couldn't hide it anywhere either. 

“It doesn't work?” Alec suddenly said behind him. He could hear disbelief in his voice.

“I didn't say that,” David muttered.

“You haven't really said anything.” Alec crouched, taking a seat beside him. 

David didn't say anything to that either. He kept staring at the crown that sat on the table. He resorted to calling it a crown. He hated crowns, their symbols of power. 

"Theres not much to say."

"There's not much you want to say," he accused. He was right. He didn't want to say anything. 

“You don't understand, i've already done some bad things…” Making this weapon was one. If he could only take it back... He created other things with his powers to help himself but, he had no choice. This would be the worst thing. 

Because he did have a choice in the matter but... was blinded by what he thought was going to be good. 

“We've all done some bad things in this city. The helmet is a step to the first good thing,” Alec said, giving him an awkward pat on the back. He wasn't looking at him, but rather the wet ceiling the landlord never bothered to even look at. 

David sighed. “I wanna help the city, not make it worse. That's exactly what you're going to do.”   
“You've said that,” he muttered, not even paying attention. His eyes studied the helmet, for just a moment, a glint in his eyes, as if he didn't trust David with his own creation.

“Im just scared.”

“And I just want to know why. You trust me, don't you?” 

“Obviously not. Do you think Dad would want this?" He looked to his brother, but Alec didn't look at him. He was still staring at the ceiling. 

Their dad was a powerful man. A strong man with good money. In his care, they didn't need to steal. They didn't need to feel as if the change of the city rested in their hands. Their dad knew how to keep Alec under control. David did not. Even if he was younger, their dad entrusted him with taking care of themselves.

"You're more sensible to the world. Your brother lives in a fantasy land," he had said to him. To which Alec replied, that his "fantasyland" was better City than Gatlon could ever hope to be. 

They argued over it a lot. David always stayed out of it because he didn't understand. He just wanted to live another day like anyone else. He didn't understand why Alec cared so much. 

The only person he did under was Simon. Simon wanted nothing but to survive. Just like he did. They both knew there wasn't much they could do about anyway. Alec was more focused on the ruling part than the actually fixing part. If only he could see through his own dreams.

David sighed, pulling the "crown" close. 

“Let me go try again.” David whispered, picking himself off the floor. Alec didn't stop him as he left.

What was that saying about crowns on a heavy head?

**Author's Note:**

> Thx for reading, it means alot <3 i hope you enjoyed it


End file.
